1. Field
The present application relates to a solid state imaging device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A solid state imaging device is roughly classified into a CCD sensor and a MOS type sensor. In general, a CCD sensor is more excellent in that noise is small, however, it has a disadvantage that power consumption is large. On the other hand, a MOS type sensor has an advantage that power consumption is drastically smaller than that of a CCD sensor, however, has a disadvantage that noise is somewhat large.
In a MOS type sensor, it is comparatively easy to incorporate various functional circuits using a MOS transistor and as an example, mention is made of an amplifying type solid state imaging device that has a signal amplifying element in a pixel. In such an amplifying type solid state imaging device, noise is likely to occur, which is referred to as fixed pattern noise (FPN), resulting from variations in the photo-receiving element or amplifying element constituting a pixel.
As a method of correcting the fixed pattern noise, a method is described in Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Gazette No. 3536517) and Patent Document 2 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-151672) described below, in which an output in a dark state (Vdark) and an output in a bright state (Vsig) are both read from each pixel and a difference between them is used as a signal output. Such a solid state imaging device includes a plurality of pixels disposed two-dimensionally and photoelectrically converting an incident light, a vertical signal lines provided to correspond to each column of the plurality of pixels and to which output signals of the pixels of the column corresponding thereto are supplied, and a plurality of storage capacitors in which two storage capacitors are provided to correspond to each of the vertical signal lines, and in which a signal corresponding to a signal of the vertical signal line corresponding thereto is stored and at the same time, the signal being stored is supplied to a predetermined horizontal signal line. Then, the output in the dark state from the pixel is stored in one of the storage capacitors provided to correspond to each of the vertical signal lines and in the other storage capacitor, the output in the bright state from the pixel is stored.